


Wake me up

by Alimator



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir Needs a Hug, Bad Parent Gabriel Agreste, Character Death, Dead Nathalie Sancoeur, Don't sue me, F/M, Heavy Angst, Hurt Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Poor Nathalie Sancoeur, sad boi Gabriel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-15 06:02:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29184474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alimator/pseuds/Alimator
Summary: She sat limply on the floor leaning against the wall and staring blankly at her chair.Her body was frail. She looked sickly thin though he was sure he had witnessed her eat more or less regularly. What bothered him the most, however, was the stark contrast of her pale white skin and the blood.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth/Nathalie Sancoeur
Comments: 6
Kudos: 39





	Wake me up

When Gabriel entered the atelier his eyes went first to Nathalie’s desk, subconsciously ready to say good morning to her, but she wasn't at her desk, which was weird because he was sure he witnessed her enter the room. He let his gaze wander to search for her in the mostly empty office. When his eyes landed on her he found her not at her desk but behind it. She sat limply on the floor leaning against the wall and staring blankly at her chair. 

  
  


“Nathalie!” he immediately went to her and fell to his knees. Gabriel took her in his arms and manoeuvred her body into a position that fit his when it became apparent that she wasn't going to do it herself as she usually would. He felt a twinge of longing, normally he'd take her into his arms and she would move closer and nuzzle against him and they would just be, perfectly in sync with each other. No words were needed and the ones that would pass between them was Gabriel's worry and her dismissal of it. This time, however, she said nothing and barely moved a muscle. She was so still it scared him, her breathing was shallow and raspy but it was the clearest indication of the life within her. A small bubble of blood appeared in the corner of her mouth and Gabriel feels a knife jab his heart. 

  
  


“Nathalie talk to me,” still his assistant doesn't move. He wants, with some guilt, to shout at her, to order her to do something, anything so that she'd move and or say something to him, “Nat,” he said softly and he swears he sees her pupils come back into focus at the sound of her nickname. He doesn't think either of them remembered the last time he used it, “Nat you need to tell me what's wrong,” she exhaled sharply for someone who was barely breathing and Gabriel wanted to say that it was a sarcastic laugh of sorts but he couldn't be certain. It was laughable, he realised, because what wasn't wrong? Everything was wrong. 

  
  


The blood at the corner of her mouth had gathered enough and started to slowly trickle down her chin. Gabriel furrowed his brow with worry. He took her face in his hands and pushed open her mouth as gently as he could with his fingers, she didn't show any sign of stopping him. Inside he could clearly see was red and stained with blood. He gasped and let out a pained exhale. Letting her face go he moved his hands down to her shoulders and held them firmly. Her body was frail. She looked sickly thin though he was sure he had witnessed her eat more or less regularly. What bothered him the most, however, was the stark contrast of her pale white skin and the blood. 

  
  


“Nathalie,” he breathed and pulled her closer to his chest, letting his head rest in the crook of her neck, “don't do this to me, Nat,” his voice cracked and he could feel tears building up in his eyes, “Please Nathalie, please don't die on me,” he started shaking his body expressing the sadness he was trying to force back down from his face, “please,” he said quietly into her ear, “I’ll stop, I'll give her up, all of it I’ll give it up. I just need you to stay Nathalie,” the tears broke through like water breaking a through a dam and he sobbed against her. It was a raw sound, full of pain and anguish. His loud cries slowly reduced to silent sobs, they just sat like that through it all. Once he had dried up all his tears he resorted to just sitting there with his head on her shoulder. It was somehow worse than crying because he had nothing to express his sadness with, no way to get it out. 

  
  


“Gabriel,” he sucked in a breath, holding still and keeping quiet straining his ears to hear her words, “I'm going to take a nap.”

  
  


“No,” he said silently but hopelessly.

  
  


“Wake me up at 1:15, you have a meeting at half-past,” she rasped, each word getting softer and softer.

  
  


“Nathalie,” he called but he felt the life drain out from her within his grasp like sand slipping through his fingers.

  
  


;-;

  
  


Hawkmoth had stopped, Gabriel Agreste was his last victim. He had wrecked the atelier in his grief but found it wasn't easy to rid himself of the pain and akumatised himself so that he could take it out on Paris. He had almost had their miraculous too, but he stopped himself, knowing Nathalie wouldn't have wanted him to bring her back, and bringing Emilie back seemed pointless now. He returned home that day tired and still grief-stricken. Adrien had rushed into the atelier to find him sitting within the mess next to Nathalie's dead body. That's how Adrien had found out because Gabriel hadn't the nerve to tell him. They sat together crying over the dead body but neither offered the other comfort.

  
  


They had buried her in a cemetery close to the mansion and had dedicated a bench to her in the park. He wanted to do more but when he went to search for any family she may have had that he could support them he found that she had none. He chided himself for not knowing more about her. She had been an only child, something they shared, her father had died when she was young and her mother had died when Nathalie as in her late 20’s. How did he not know that? She had been working for him by then. 

  
  


;-;

  
  


Months went by and Gabriel wouldn't heal, he couldn't. Adrien’s recovery was much slower than what it had been when Emilie had died, but Gabriel couldn't really care less. He was neglecting him again, he knew Nathalie would be disappointed in him but some days he found himself wishing he never woke up and then barely managed to get the work done for the day. 

  
  


One day Adrien found him sitting right where she had died, his suit jacket thrown to the floor along with his ascot. His perfectly gelled hair was limp and fell into his face. Gabriel's glasses lay broken, thrown halfway across the room. His cries to an outsider were too heart wrenching to bear, pure misery. It would have been a sight to see if the media had seen it, Gabriel Agreste writhing with emotional pain on the ground of his office, a broken man. He looked up at Adrien through his foggy vision and for a moment he saw pity in the boy’s eyes like he understood the pain Gabriel felt like he finally understood why Gabriel was still pushing him away after everything, but his eyes must have been deceiving him, because his facade returned to the cold stare that he had adopted for the past few months, a look that so closely resembled Nathalie's stern indifference. 

  
  


“Adrien,” he had called, but Adrien didn't move towards him or soften his features or come to comfort him, he merely walked off shutting the atelier door behind him as though there was nothing wrong and Gabriel had just sent him off to get a coffee. 

  
  


He deserved Adrien's bluntness, he was getting a taste of his own medicine. Gabriel just never thought Adrien would be the one to serve it to him. He lifted his head to the heavens and spoke as though she'd hear. He's never believed in a place after death but here he was, “Can I not do anything right? I just wanted a good life, I just wanted to be happy,” his tears started up again, “why can't I be happy? Why do I have to go and ruin it all every single damn time,” he levelled his head and leaned it against the wall, closing his eyes, “It's past 1:15 Nathalie, wake up.”

**Author's Note:**

> Another angsty fic that I wrote at 2 AM last night instead of working on the fic I'm supposed to because ¯\\(°_o)/¯ why the hell not.


End file.
